Raymond F. Stainback, MD, FACC, FASE, takes the helm as president of the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) today. He has served on the ASE Board of Directors as Vice President and President-Elect prior to ascending to his one-year presidency.
During the ASE 2021 Scientific Sessions Virtual Experience June 18-21, Dr. Stainback shared his vision for his ASE presidency over the next year. He said, “The ASE committees, task forces, working groups, councils, and specialty interest groups are the working ecosystem for the organization. I plan to build our ability to meet member needs and the field’s needs in four key areas: Guidelines and Standards, Education, Research, and International Relations. ASE is known for our premier guidelines and standards portfolio. In the future we will move toward having “living” guidelines that use new optimization tools and processes enabling these guidelines to be seamlessly updated as relevant data and evidence has been vetted. These updates will be synchronized with ASE’s educational products along with expanding opportunities through the ASE Learning Hub to support curriculum-based learning for trainees and life-long learners. I plan to oversee further structural coordination amongst ASE’s diverse research pursuits and granting processes including our growing ImageGuide Registry environment, the ASE Foundation and the associated projects that build upon our long history of supporting cardiovascular research. Lastly, I will also work to expand our International Alliance Partners program and engage with our international members, who now make up over 20% of our total membership, to build stronger and wider bonds across the globe.”
Dr. Stainback is Chief of Non-Invasive Cardiology at Texas Heart Institute at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center and Associate Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. He has practiced general cardiology at this facility and with Hall-Garcia Cardiology Associates at Baylor College of Medicine for over 20 years, where he has also directed the echocardiography lab. Dr. Stainback received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine and completed his internal medicine and general cardiology fellowship training at Vanderbilt University. He then completed an advanced clinical and research imaging fellowship at the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
Dr. Stainback has a superb record of volunteer service in numerous organizations, including ASE. He has served on ASE’s Membership, Advocacy, and Scientific Sessions planning committees and on the ASE’s Echo Appropriateness, Quality, and Point of Care Task Forces. He represented ASE on the ACC Foundation’s Appropriate Use oversight committee for several years and co-authored a variety of ASE documents, including the quality guidelines. In 2015, Dr. Stainback was the chair of the ASE guideline writing group for Echocardiography in the Management of Patients with Left Ventricular Assist Devices. For 15 years Dr. Stainback was an ASE representative for the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC), where he served as an IAC – Echo division board member and President and most recently as IAC parent company Board Chair. Dr. Stainback is a founding member and long-time President (1998-2018) of the Greater Houston Society of Echo-Vascular.
The ASE membership also elected 11 new board members to serve the Society beginning July 1, 2021. New officers on the ASE Executive Committee will be: Vice-President (one-year term) Benjamin Eidem, MD, FASE, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN, USA; Treasurer (three-year term) Cynthia Taub, MD, MBA, FASE, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire; and Secretary (extended one-year term) Matt Umland, ACS, RDCS, FASE, Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, WI. In addition to the new officers, the following new Board of Directors members were elected to serve two-year terms: Carolyn Altman, MD, FASE, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX (Pediatric Council Steering Committee Chair); Anthony Gallagher, RDCS (AE, PE), FASE, MBA, Wellstar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta, GA; Leo Lopez, MD, FASE, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford, Palo Alto, CA; G. Burkhard Mackensen, MD, PhD, FASE, University of Washington, Seattle, WA (Perioperative Council Steering Committee Chair); Susan Mayer, MD, FASE, Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute, Kansas City, MO; Kian Keong Poh, MBBChir, FASE, National University Heart Centre, Singapore (International representative); and Thomas Ryan, MD, FASE, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (Past President representative). Jordan Strom, MD, MSc, FASE, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School Boston, MA, was elected to a one-year term as the inaugural ASE Leadership Academy member elected to serve on the ASE Board of Directors. Vandana Sachdev, MD, FASE, National Institute of Health,
Bethesda, MD, was reappointed to serve a second 2-year term for her exceptional service to the board.
This announcement underscores the organization’s commitment to reflecting the talent and diversity of the cardiovascular field. The new members represent major sub-specialties in the field including circulation, pediatrics, anesthesiology, sonography, and interventional echocardiography.